Binational rail line needs to get on track

Desert Line railroad holds potential

The March 30 front-page article on the Desert Line railroad debacle is only the latest chapter in a very convoluted and confusing history.

Hopefully the next chapter will be the success in court to remove this Las Vegas group with their creative financing and allow a railroader in, someone interested in making this system work, as John Spreckels had intended.

The potential for this line in the regional movement of goods is still untapped but thwarted by parasitic practices, as well as the shortsighted action of three Baja California governors by dealing out contracts to contributors or appointees.

The fact that the line is really two rail lines that will not function properly unless there is objective coordination seems to be missed by the politicians on both sides of the border.

The issue with this 60-mile line is more than just moving box cars between El Centro and San Diego. The interest by Union Pacific in allowing its locomotives to work on both segments of the rail line, indicates the national, both U.S. and Mexican, importance of this rusted rail.

R. Mitchel Beauchamp

City treasurer, National City

Former manager,

Ferrocarriles Peninsulares

del Noroeste

Binational rail line must get rolling

Metropolitan Transit System’s San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad has been underperforming ever since its inception some 100 years ago. Today, as we contemplate an economic megaregion able to compete globally, the time for dithering is over.

Recently the Mexican government agency involved has demonstrated its commitment to regional economic prowess by not engaging in the same sort of short-term, narrow-interest thinking still at play with MTS. We ought to seize this opportunity.

U.S. political and business leaders need to come together and make the regional binational economy the priority. Let’s demand that our public agencies perform at the highest standards so that our communities may prosper through the kind of job creation and economic vitality this rail system can deliver.

Rudy Ramirez

Chula Vista councilman and MTS board alternate

Peter going broke paying Paul for ACA

Regarding the community essay by Somer Meade, “Health care burden lightened” (March 29), I am thrilled she has been able to get health coverage. However, someone else is paying. That someone is my son and others like him all over this country who have had drastic and unaffordable increases in their own health insurance.

My son’s health care for a family of five went from $500 a month to $1,100; his deductible went from $5,500 a year to $10,500. His co-pay went from 90/10 to 60/40.

My son and others like him have to work overtime, take second jobs and cut from their budget to pay for others’ health care.

Medicare and veterans’ health care are also being cut so others can have health care that covers items many people do not need or want.

There has to be a better way then robbing Peter to pay Paul. Peter is almost out of money.

Denice Fipps

Fallbrook

Obamacare subsidy add

Of course someone receiving a $3,000 a year gift will be “less anxious.” (U-T Community Essay, March 29).

How nice to spend an extra $3,000 a year whether provided by work, lottery winnings, or Obamacare. The problem is that when it comes from Obamacare someone else has to pay the $3,000. I am one of those people. I have to pay $18,478 a year just for health insurance because of Obamacare subsidies to others. All I ever hear from the recipients of Obamacare subsidies is how they are entitled to receive part of my paycheck, because taking part of the earnings of others is their “basic human right.”

I’d at least like to see a letter to the editor thanking those of us who are forced to pay for their subsidies.

Blaine Stauffer

Tierrasanta

ACA opposition scares people away

I was pleased to see the community essay by Somer Meade outlining her experience getting health care and how much better it is and more affordable since the ACA.

It is dismaying to see the U-T’s opposition to the ACA. That opposition is probably preventing people from signing up.

There are many more stories like Meade’s, but they are overwhelmed by negative ads that often don’t tell the truth. Health care is complicated. We need to encourage people to learn how it applies to them and not scare them away from even trying.

Joan Suffredini

Carlsbad

ACA not like the tea tax

A letter writer March 30 writes that “The Boston Tea Party occurred in 1773 when the British government forced the colonists to only purchase tea from the East India Company. Today, our own American government is forcing citizens to purchase health insurance and only government approved insurance. The parallels are apparent.”

The Boston Tea Party was the result of the colonists’ anger about the tea tax that the British Parliament was forcing them to pay even though they had no representation, and no say about taxes. The colonists refused to purchase any tea at all from Britain, and were smuggling tea from Holland. Parliament allowed the East India Company to sell tea to America through its own agents, and the company was thus able to sell the tea for less than what the colonists were paying to smuggle it into America. The colonists still refused to buy tea from Britain, and the Boston Tea Party was the result. What they were protesting was taxation without representation.

Today Americans are required to purchase health insurance (if they can afford it) because it protects everyone from having to foot the bill for people who get sick or injured and have no insurance. It is the same with requiring auto insurance for those who wish to drive a car. It protects all of us, and will in the end lower health care costs.

The ACA was voted on and approved by representatives of the people who voted those representatives into office. To try and draw a parallel to the Boston Tea Party is ridiculous.

Linda Duryea

Coronado

Hard work defines immigrant’s life

Fred Dickey told a story of an immigrant’s struggle to survive the Cambodian “killing fields,” and then his road to success as the owner of a San Diego doughnut shop (“Immigrants survival story all American,” March 31).

I’ve heard people complain about how many of these small businesses are owned by immigrants. What these complainers fail to realize is many of these owners, lacking language and job skills, essentially “buy a job” — one that requires long hours and hard work most Americans find unappealing. Please understand this principle and appreciate the work the next time you visit an immigrant-owned small business.

Robert Irwin

Carlsbad

Churches not paying their fair share

If you are going through the annual or quarterly aggravating ritual of tax preparation and feel frustrated about the high rate you are paying, keep one thing in mind. You and I are paying higher because of the 1954 Congressional bill sponsored by Rep. Peter Mack of Illinois that allows churches and ministers to not pay taxes on income, their homes and the maintenance thereof.

Mack argued that ministers should be rewarded for “carrying on such a courageous fight against a godless and anti-religious world movement.” To me the bill created an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and makes the rest of us pay billions more in taxes because the clergy and established churches don’t pay their fair share.

Warren Dunn

Oceanside

Ban e-cigs in public places

As an SDSU student, I am pleased that as of January 2014 we are a smoke-free campus. However, I am disappointed that e-cigarettes are not prohibited as well.

Why can’t e-cigarettes be banned like tobacco cigarettes? Just because e-cigarettes don’t produce any potent odors doesn’t make it right for people to use in a public area. The safety of e-cigarettes still remains unknown. E-cigarettes contain nicotine and can be highly addictive; many teens are using them as if it was the “cool thing to do.” It’s not cool.

I understand teens want to smoke for whatever reason, but they should have some consideration for the people around them.

Poway and Carlsbad have banned e-cigs in public areas to protect people from inhaling toxic vapors. Why can’t other public agencies to the same?